Ed Woodward said it is likely Amazon and Facebook will bid for streaming rights to the Premier League.
In his quarterly call with bank executives who invest in United’s shares on the New York stock exchange, Woodward said the pair were very interested in the last round of rights deals for 2016-19, which the Premier League sold primarily to BSkyB and BT for £8.4 billion.
Last month Amazon outbid Sky, paying a reported £10 million a year, for the UK rights to the ATP tennis tour, its first major live sport acquisition outside the United States.
"Absolutely, I think they will enter the mix; anecdotally, there was incredibly strong interest in the last cycle," said Woodward. "We are hearing that around the Premier League table and we are also hearing that from a European perspective in terms of interest in the Champions League and Europa rights. I do think we are going to see an increasing engagement from these and we would welcome the interest.”